SAVING AND APPLICATION OF MANURES. i 51 



giving his experience in the care of a garden ; and stated 

 that at the List county fair he exhibited fifty-one varieties of 

 garden vegetables, including nine varieties of squashes. The best 

 way to keep parsnips through the winter he found to be to put 

 them in the cellar and cover with earth. In this way they can be had 

 any time during the winter, and they keep far better than if left in 

 the ground. He found no difficulty in raising onions, if the ground 

 is prepared in the fall, highly manured, and the seed sown very 

 early in spring. 



Mr. Hobbs presented a report on the subject assigned him at 

 the last session, to wit : 



The Saving and Application or Manures. 



Manure, according to Webster, is anything that will fertilize 

 land, or furnish food for crops. The question before us is, how 

 can we, to greatest advantage, save and apply this fertilizing and 

 crop-producing food? "Without manure," as has been well 

 said, " successful farming is impossible." 



It has been asserted that every family of five persons creates 

 refuse enough in a year to manure an acre of land. If this be 

 true, it is evident there is a wide field open for us in the saving of 

 manures. One of the most frequent sources of loss is in the 

 waste of liquid manures. If the urine of animals be wasted there 

 is a loss of one-half of what should be always employed. To 

 secure this, absorbents must be used. Bedding of some kind 

 should be freely used for all stock. This serves a double purpose, 

 since it keeps them clean, thus adding to their comfort and health, 

 as well as by absorbing the liquid excretions. Every slaughter- 

 house, privy and cesspool should be so arranged that no liquids 

 escape, nor any offensive odors be evolved to contaminate the 

 atmosphere and endanger health. Plaster and charcoal dust 

 serve a useful purpose in absorbing ammonia. By the free use 

 of muck a large amount of valuable manure can be saved from the 

 privy and sink, by allowing none of the urine, soap suds or other 

 slops to go to waste or gender hurtful effluvia. Economy and 

 health alike demand this to be done. In warm weather especially 

 all such liquids decompose rapidly, and gases noxious to man but 

 vitalizing to the plant pass into the air unless retained by some 

 absorbent. 



